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We have been enjoying the end of summer here, in beautiful San Diego. We had been taking our little guy on walks and pic-nics and he LOVES it. He is a real San Diegan, outdoorsy and social. He is very happy in the fresh air. He started early, when being outside, even in the evening, was is favorite way to fall asleep. Now he is not missing any time sleeping: he is active, very curious (he has been called “curious george” at daycare) and taking it all in. Being a boy, he is particularly drawn to the dirtiest, most disgusting things he can crawl to and trying to stop him from eating them is quite a challenge.

We had the chance to take him at a live afternoon concert in a Coronado park, and he enjoyed the infant swing. Daddy was being very cautious, and not pushing him too hard, but I am sure Keegan wished he could go faster. He is also very intrigued by grass and leaves, and now that he is crawling efficiently, there is no stopping him. It took us quite a while to get him to stop, and pose for the camera.

faster, daddy, faster

why sitting on a blanket, when you can sit on the grass and eat leaves?

 Sometimes it is hard to remember, at least for Tizi, but Keegan has already double nationality:lucky him! In preparation for our trip to Italy, we requested both passports, to make things easier at both customs. Of course, even if we requested them both at the same time, the Italian one took a couple of extra months…and they printed a wrong birth date. So we had to send it back, and hope. Amazingly enough, depite the fact it was the middle of summer, a notorious non-productive time in Italy, we got it back in a few days. So, now we are all set to go.What is really amazing is that, for both passports,we had to provide a photo and specific info such as heigth…and the passport is good for 5 to 10 years!! Like he is going to be looking anything like it in a few months…abd we sure hope he will be taller.

Let’s me see if this is authentic…

Yup, it is the real deal

It has been quite warm here in San Diego, even in usually breezy Clairemont, Upper West Side, so we are trying to find ways to stay cool, and especially to keep the little guy cool. He seems to be dealing with the heat a lot better, but he still get hot. So we have been trying a little inflatable pool in the front yard. He seemed perplexed at first, but he got quickly more comfortable. He enjoyed playing in the water, but he still seemed more interested in the surrounding grass, leaning over the edges and making dad’s job of keeping him safe quie difficult.

Well, well well: it looks like Tizi was right. Mr “antsy pants” is moving forward. Saturday (8 months 7 days) was the first time we noticed. Of course, it is not an unorthodox crawling, but he is moving forward, and getting faster and faster every day. Instead of a traditional hands and knees crawl, he is using his belly quite a bit, rocking on it, in an old school, breakdancing kind of way. He is pretty funny to look at! I guess now would be a good time to baby proof the house. (-:

He is stretching to reach quite a bit as well, and he also figured out that if he is on a blanket and there is a toy he wants on it, but it is out of his reach, there is no point trying to crawl towards it: he can simply pull the blanket and the toy will come to him. Smart or lazy????????

He has also mastered the rotation move and he can do a 360 turn, still on his stomach, in less than a minute. You just need to put in front of him some enticing object and he will rotate; lately that would be:

1) newpapers and/or magazine, preferably if mom or dad are trying to read them
2)  ANYTHING colorful that is out of reach. As soon as the object is reached, it is NOT interesting anymore
3) ANYTHING  dangerous, such as cables, wires, etc
4) electronic devices, such as phones, remote controls, etc.

ready, set…

GO!!!!!!

Almost there

It is within my reach

Got it! I can crumple it as much as I like

What a miracle: last night, Tizi had an unprecedented 8 hours sleep! Keegan went to sleep at 7.30 pm, without a peep, and slept all the way till 6.40 am (mom went to bed around 10pm). It couldn’t have come at a better time, since Matt was out of town, for business…or so he said 🙂

We are still holding our breath, knocking on wood, crossing our fingers and doing all sort of Italian good-luck things, such as Toccare ferro (touching something made of iron), fare le corna (making a fist with the index and pinky finger sticking out), or, and I let Matt do that, touching male genitals, to make sure we are not jinxing it, but let me tell you: it feels GREAT!

So, we made it to another month: Keegan is now 8 months old. It was another beautiful, sunny day in San Diego, and since it happened to be a Sunday, we went for a pic-nic and a short walk at lake Miramar: not really a lake, but an artificial damn. It is quite nice, though, and quite pleasant to walk.

Keegan has grown a lot in the past month: he gained 1.5 lb, topping off at 16lb 9 0z. Still holding on his spot at 5% of the curve, but he does not seem quite as small anymore, and he has plenty of fat rolls, especially on his legs. According to our imprecise measurements, he is now about 70cm long or 27.5 inches.

He looked smashing in his Armani baby shirt that grandma sent from Italy.

It is getting harder and harder to get him to pose for his monthly pictures: he moves and squirms and flip himself on his belly.

check out my acrobatics!

We have more milestones to report. He is getting closer and closer to crawl: he is moving backwards quite a bit, and he usually positions himself in the “backward dog” position: will be be a young Yoga master? He has, however, learned to bend his knees and he now stays on his hands and knees a little more every day: Tizi’s betting he will be doing a full forward crawling within two weeks. He did move somewhat forward once, but not in a coordinated manner: he used his head !

He is also learning to get up from sitting, by holding onto something. He is usually doing in his portable crib that we have positioned in the sun room as a sort of play area. We obviously can’t leave him there by himself anymore. He is also pulling himself up somewhat by holding on mom’s and dad’s clothing.

More than ever is on the move: he can’t stay still a second…and Tizi is usually blamed for passing this characteristic on. It is quite exahusting. So, even if we are now sleeping more ( knocking on wood) we are as tired as before, because he really wears us down…and he takes shorter and less frequent naps. Tizi  is constantly trying to come up with new ways to keep him entertained. The latest trick: a small tent we can put up in the gated front yard, so he can enjoy some fresh air. He seems to enjoy it.

Finally, he is really attracted to tags and paper in general: another thing he has learned from mom. Lucky for Keegan, paper is definitively something that is NOT lacking in this house.

Keegan has also tried a larger variety of foods: apples, pears, bananas, peaches, avocado (NOT his favorite so far), peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes and zucchini. We even started preparing some homemade food: nothing extravagant, but just to add some variety. Keegan has been a good sport about it. He tries everything, but he is also very clear and determined when he DOES not want to eat something: he makes a funny face, and refuses to open his mouth. He even forcefully pushes the spoon away: fortunately, he doesn’t spit anything out, so far. Tizi’s hoping he has inherited dad’s sense of adventure and love of new and different foods. We already have one picky eater in the family.

We have more progress to report. We don’t want to jinx it, but we are definitively doing better. Keegan slept through the night pretty much most of the week. Can you believe it???? What is even more unbelievable, is that we are still feeling VERY tired.

We started our “sleep training” last weekend. On Friday night, he woke up at 1.30am. We tried to let him cry but after 30 minutes we gave in, and fed him. He then slept the rest of the night. On Saturday, he woke up at 10.30pm: this time we were undeterred. We knew that he didn’t need to eat, as he ate at 7pm. We did let him cry (while periodically checking on him). He cried for 45 minutes. It was excruciating…but then he fell asleep and slept till 7 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We, of course, woke up earlier, and went in to check on him to see if he was still breathing. Tizi was actually in major pain: the breast was really full and the back ached: she was not used to sleep this long anymore.But man, ,was it worth the pain!

The next night, he woke up at 11.30, cried 15 minutes, and slept past 6am. And the third night, he didn’t wake up till 5.30am. The next days, he has been sleeping through. Occasionally he wakes up around 3am or 4am and goes back to sleep by himself in a few minutes.

Again, we are not saying we are out of the woods yet, but we are VERY grateful for the extra sleep. Finally!!!!

As an added bonus, he seems to sleep a little easier in the daytime even if his naps are shorter. So he compensate for the extra sleep at nighttime by totally wearing us down during the day. He has not calmed down at all.

Now we only have to buy some kind of crib bumper, as he moves quite a bit. He usually sleep on his belly, and we have found him with his legs sticking out of the crib on more than one occasion. Ouch!

We are still working on it! We have some progress to report: at night time, usually, Keegan now falls asleep on his own, without extensive rocking or swaddling, and usually with minimal or no crying. It took about two/three nights. The new nighttime routine seems to help as well. Now that is free to move about the crib, he often rolls over, so he can sleep on his tummy or side.

Afternoon naps and middle of the night are another story. We have mix success with afternoon naps: sometime he falls asleep easily, other times he just cries and cries (we set our limit to one hour: after that we pick him up…and yes we are continually checking on him, and comforting him at different intervals, so he is not totally abandoned). Part of the problem is that we don’t have a very consistent nap time. It is hard because he doesn’t have one at daycare, so he is tired at different times. Afternoon naps is when we see most of his acrobatics: in his crying, he flips himself over, rolls, rotate himself. One day I found him sleeping horizontally (parallel to the short side of the crib), with his head nudged in the corner, in the exact opposite side from where I left him. This cannot be comfortable! I caught a picture of him that day, when he just woke up.

where am I???

And we have absolutely NO success in stopping his night wakings/feeding, YET. In all honesty, we haven’t been consistent with that, as we are usually too tired at 3 am, but we are determined to try next weekend (and sleep during the day). Wish us luck.

On the other hand, he is developing more and more every day. He is playing with new toys, such as the uber-cool, soft blocks from Dwell Baby, (gift from Steve and Barbara). He is usually destroying the neat stack mom and dad create, but it is a start.

D is for Darling…or Dude

He is spending more time on his tummy, doing push ups, even lifting his butt and legs. He is moving more and more, mainly backwards, but he also rotates himself, and get around. He may have rolled over from his belly to his back, but we haven’t seen it happening, so we are not sure. It seems to be a matter of weeks before he will figure out how to crawl, or move more efficiently. Mom is not thrilled about chasing him around: he is already constantly in motion now, imagine when he can propel himself!

We also had our first video phone calls with Grandma and Grandpa in Italy: they had some technical difficulties on their camera, but they were able to see the little guy: it was wonderful being able to share all his exploits. It really made us feel more connected. And it is all free…miracle of the new technologies. Thank you Skype!

Well, Keegan is all set to go. He received his first passport, the American one, and is ready to fly to Italy in September. Of course, we are still waiting on the Italian one, which we ordered at the same time. But you know how this work…huge backlog and now it is vacation time. Tizi really hopes to have it by September, as it would make the custom process easier, but she is not optimistic. We are talking about Italia bureaucracy, after all.

I am ready to go

 check this out: my picture looks pretty good

2007 was an extraordinary year as far as number of pregnancies in Matt’s and Tizi’s immediate circle. This is good news for Keegan that will have a lot of friends to play with. On July 12, he met one of those future buddies. We met with Allison and Jack and their little guy Case, who is only a month older than Keegan, in a park in Coronado. Steve, Barbara and Ian were also there. Matt, Jak, Steve and Carter all worked together in Virginia, and slowly migrated west (shame on Carter that moved back east).

It was a beautiful day, and we had a fun BBQ at the park, wtih lots of yummy food. It was great just hang out and spend time together. We don’t do this enough. The kids got along well, or mostly ignored each other, and of course Keegan immediately started trying to grab Case. It MUST be the Italian blood. The afternoon came to a close when all the kids started fussying, almost at the same time. But they did last longer that we anticipated!

So here it is: Keegan finally decided to roll over, from his back to his belly. We noticed on Saturday he could roll over with a little help, and on Sunday morning, July 6, he did it on his own. of course Tizi missed it, because she was trying to get some ZZZZZ in the morning, but Mattie came and got her up, and we some coaxing he did it again, for mommie (and the camera) to see. it was exciting, at least for us: he didn’t seem that excited about it…until we clapped and told him how good he was.

He also seems to recognize his name. We called his name out loud when he was on his exersaucer with his back to us, and he turned every time we called him. Yes, we tried ther words, and using the same intonation…it really seems he knows who he is.

In other news, we are trying to get Keegan to sleep on his own with some crying out…we will see if this helps. It is very HARD, especially for Tizi: seeing Keegan smiling the morning after our first crying out night, reassured her a little, though. In the past couple of months, it has been harder and harder to get him to sleep, and we felt it was getting worse instead of better, so we are hoping this will solve the problem. We will give it a week, and see the results. We are at day two right now. Once he can sleep on his 0wn, we will eliminate at least a night feeding.

This was an unusual 4th of July: no hanging out at the beach, no fireworks, no beer drinking or BBQ. Keegan had a tough night and so we were all tired. However, we still wanted to enjoy a beautiful day in San Diego, so we had a pic-nic on a nearby park, and just took it easy. It was a nice end to our two week vacation.

tizi’s favorite t-shirt. yes, she is this arrogant. (-:

One more month: Keegan is now closer to being 1 year than to being born…scary thought. The day itself was not the best. Maybe it was the jet lag, but Keegan was cranky and couldn’t sleep much of the day. He went to daycare, though, while Matt and Tizi, still on vacation, rested a little at home. In the afternoon, we played and took pictures as always, and we did our usual weight check. Still, a slow, steady growth: 15lb and 1 ounce. It is a good gain from 14lb 4 ounces June 24. He feels a lot heavier than before, but we may just be tired.

He is changing very quickly. In fact, in this week away he seemed to have grown quite a bit. He is now a lot more comfortable on his belly, as he can easily do push ups. He even started creeping, or moving backwards when on his belly. He has his feet in position and starts understanding he can use his hands and arms to move forward. We are “fearing” he will crawl soon. It is probably a good time to baby proof the house.

Still not a total rollover yet, but he is more than half way there. He can even rotate 180 degrees in his crib on his back: we noticed when we left him there for a few minutes, hoping, he would go to sleep; in his crying fit he completely rotated himself. He has been also chewing on his gums quite a bit: he seems an old men, babbling to himself. And talking about babbling, he has been doing quite a bit of that also. The drooling also seem to indicate a tooth is coming.

an expression it has become very common

He is now a lot more comfortable sitting, and spend more time playing with his toys sitting up. We discovered he can also hold his own bottle when we feed him and his own spoon, for that matter. He is even coordinated enough to be able to put most of the food content into his mouth.

One thing hasn’t changed, though: his beautiful smile (except for when we are trying to put him to sleep: ironically, as I am typing this sentence, he started crying from his crib). Everyone always comments on how happy, and how “flirty” he is. He does smile to everyone: he is definitively a people person: where did he take from is a mystery! Not from dad nor mom, maybe grandma? Finally, he is now making even more clear when he wants to be picked up: he extends his arms up, and he is throwing his arms around our neck, as a reward for being held. he is also trying to kiss mommy… he just can’t understand he needs to close his mouth first, so he ends up slobbering and sucking on mommie’s face instead. He is definitively a very sweet ( and cute, if I can say so myself) boy: if he could only sleep….

At the end of our great family reunion we had the chance to visit some old friends that live in Virginia, Abby and Carter. Carter has been a good friend of Matt since his time in Virginia, and he recently moved back there, after many years in California. Abby was our maid of honor and in fact she is the one who introduced us, a cold evening at the end of 2000. Matt had just moved to San Diego, and Abby organized an evening out at the Maloney’s Pub in the Gaslamp district with a few friends. Tizi and Matt hit it off right away, even if we didn’t start dating till a few months later.

Abby has a daughter, Nina, born only 10 days after Keegan, so it was good to let the babies meet. It was interesting: Keegan, probably showing his Italian blood, immediately smiled at her and tried to touch her. Nina, on the other hand, showing her Norwegian blood, was a lot more reserved. They did get along well, and Nina even shared her toys with Keegan.

how YOU doing?

she can’t resist my latin lover charm

It was great to see them: we missed them. Keegan didn’t behave as good as he could have, and gave us a completely sleepless night, but we still had a good time. Hopefully they will come visit us soon. At the very least, we will see them again in October, at Carter’s wedding.

with Abby

with Carter

We just got back from a wonderful week in North Carolina, to visit with Matt’s family. They have been getting together for a week on the beaches of North Carolina for the past few years, and it has always been a lot of fun. Tizi had missed the past couple of trips because of her work schedule, but this year, we were all able to make, Keegan included. We were very excited about introducing our new addition to the rest of the family. Despite our fears, Keegan was very good on the plane. We were lucky: neither flight was sold out, so we were able to bring our car seat on board, and Keegan slept in it quite a bit. For the rest of the time he was smiling and flirting with every woman around him. We received quite a few compliments on his behavior.

I forgot my laptop…oh well, I can play with my toy giraffe instead

this flying thing is kind of fun

It was great to see everyone: Keegan met Uncle Mike and Aunt Karol, and cousin Ella; Uncle Rob and cousins Cailynn, Bryan, Sean and Erin; Aunt Mary and cousins Josh and Bridget; Aunt Beth and Uncle Wayne and cousins Colin and Shawn; and he was happy to see again Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan and cousins Rachel and Hannah. Everyone loved to play with him, especially cousins Ella and Erin.

sitting with cousin Ella

Keegan also got his first taste — literally — of the ocean. I know we live in California, but, believe it or not, we never took him to the shore. We went walking on the beach and boardwalk, but he never felt the ocean. The first day we tried to get his feet wet, a large wave caught us all by surprise, and we all got drenched. Keegan got scared, more from the surprise screams that Tizi and the girls let out than from the water getting in his face. The next day it went better, and he got to put his feet in the frigid water: who said the Atlantic ocean is warmer than the Pacific?

one, two, three…COLD

He seemed more perplexed than anything else, but he was fascinated by the crashing waves: a future surfer boy? He was wearing some very stylish board shorts, a gift from Grandma in Italy.

The house Matt’s family rented, just a few blocks from the beach, also had a nice pool, and we spent some time there as well, playing with Keegan’s inflatable crab. He seemed to enjoy the pool a little more, and loved his hooded robe, again a gift from Italy, arrived only a couple of days before we left.

Sadly the week went by too fast: the weather was great, most of the time not too hot, and even if we didn’t have the chance to spend too much time outdoors, we had a wonderful time hanging out with family. It was the first time that Tizi and Matt could actually see anyone in the morning: on all other trips, we used to sleep in late and get to the beach when everyone else was going back home for lunch. Oh, how life changes with a baby: this time around we were always the first up! It was sad to leave: hopefully we will get to see everyone real soon.

Aunt Sue

Aunt Karol

Aunt Mary